Qualitative research methods

Semi-structured Interviews were conducted to answer the research questions discussed in Chapter 3 with different students and teachers from the Information System (IS) department (See Appendix B) for the template used for the interviews. Interviews are useful in finding out participant‗s opinions regarding the difficulties and problems which cannot be measured by questionnaires only. The interviews highlighted some of important issues for the above research questions as some students claimed that they are scared of using OCG tools because of security, Others mentioned that using these tools waste their time.

Aims of the interviews

courses in the IT College at UOB, as well as with relevant students. The aim of these interviews was to pinpoint and extract the specific problems regarding the interviewees‘ perception of using OCG tools and the difficulties faced regarding security. Additionally, the interviews discovered their views on the use of OCG tools as a teaching and learning resource.

Design of the interviews

Interviews were conducted with 10 students and their teachers from different IT departments such as Computer Science, Computer Engineering, and Information system. Interviews were divided into three parts. Part 1 was an introduction, explaining the purpose of the interview. Part 2 dealt with the warm up section in order to pave the way for the students to join the interview. It consists of four questions about what they study, methods of studying, whether they use OCG tools in their learning and what kind of OCG tools. Part 3 consisted of cool-down questions as follows:

 Problems faced when using these OCG tools;  Their perception and views towards these tools;  Usage of these tools;

 Security problems faced while using these tools and what kind of problems;  Suggestions to solve these problems in the learning.

Analysis of the teachers’ interviews

In response to the question associated with ―the problems have they faced when using these OCG tools‖, the interviewees‘ responses which are translated from the Arabic language are shown in the tables below.

Code Responses

T1 I, as a teacher, use only Facebook and Twitter for friendship because they are easy to use.

T2 I, as a teacher, think such tools can be used in learning but students need awareness.

T3 I, as a teacher, think webmail usage is worthy whilst learning.

Code Responses

T1 I, as a teacher, face a problem in that the students do not have awareness of _{using such tools. They use Facebook only with their friends.} T2 I, as a teacher, rarely use webmail in learning because the students are not

motivated to use it. Most of them do not respond.

T3 I, as a teacher, face problems with security settings of the OCG tools.

Table 4.3: Teacher’s perception and views towards these tools

Table 4.4: Usage of OCG tools

Code Responses

T1 I, as a teacher, I do not use Wiki and Twitter when learning. Sometimes I use email such as Hotmail with my colleagues.

T2 I, as a teacher, think emails are easy to use but Wikis and Skype are difficult.

T3 I, as a teacher, I use only e-learning platform such as blackboard. And I do not use its email even.

Code Responses

T1 I, as a teacher, do not trust webmail but I trust University email.

T2 I, as a teacher, do not know what kind of security problems you mean? I know that signing and encryption are difficult to set.

T3 I, as a teacher, know how to set the privacy of the Facebook and Hotmail security settings.

Code Responses

T1 The teachers and the students must have workshops to teach them how to _{use these tools in learning.} T2 Students must be encouraged by the teachers to use some of OCG tools

that are familiar with in class.

T3 Students and teachers must be taught how to use the security settings provided by webmail.

Based on the above responses, it is clear that the teachers lack the awareness of using such tools in the learning. Moreover, the teachers complained that security settings provided by OCG tools are complicated. On the other hand, some of them know how to set the privacy of the Facebook and Twitter only. It is apparent from the above interviews that the teachers do not use other OCG tools such as Wikis and Skype because they are not familiar with them.

Analysis of the Students’ interviews

The students‘ responses are similar and agreed each other. Therefore, I have chosen a representative selection of these responses which are shown in the tables below. In Table 4.6: Suggestions to solve these problems in the learning

Table 4.5: Security problems faced while using these tools

respect of questions 1 regarding the problems faced when using these OCG tools; the responses of some students are shown in Table 4.7.

In respect of questions 2 regarding their perception and views towards these tools; the responses of some students are shown in Table 4.8.

In response to the question associated with ―Usage of OCG tools‖, some of the interviewees‘ responses are shown in Table 4.9.

Table 4.7: problems faced when using these OCG tools

Code Teacher’s responses

S1 I, as a student, face a problem with technical issues

S2 I, as a student, think that webmail and Facebook expose me to hacker.

S3 I, as a student, feel anxiety when using webmail in the learning. I think it lack safety.

S4 I, as a student, do not believe in using email for learning

Table 4.8: Their perception an d views towards these tools

Code Responses

S1 I, as a student, use only Facebook and Twitter in my social life.

S2 I, as a student, think that Facebook can support learning and can facilitate communication between the students and teachers.

S3 I, as a student, use Facebook and Twitter as social media with my friends only.

S4 I, as a student, do not feel comfortable when using webmail as I think it is not secure.

In response to the question associated with ―Security problems faced while using these tools‖ responses are shown in Table 4.10.

Code Responses

S1 I, as a student, do not know much information about security.

S2 I, as a student, do not trust any of these tools and always worried about my documents.

S3 I, as a student, think that they are not secured especially webmail.

S4 I, as a student, think most of them are secure.

In relation to the question associated with ―suggestions to solve these problems in the learning‖ responses are shown in Tables below.

Table 4.9:Usage of OCG tools

Code Responses

S1 I, as a student, use Facebook but not for learning

S2 I, as a student, frequently use Facebook and rarely email but not for learning

S3 I, as a student, occasionally use only Facebook and forums but not for learning

S4 I, as a student, frequently use only Twitter and sometimes email but not for learning

Table 4.10 Security Problems faced while using of these tools

95

With reference to the students‘ interviews, it is clear that the students are only familiar with Facebook and Twitter and rarely use emails but they do not use them as learning tools. On the other hand, it seems that they are aware of the usage as they give suggestions to use it but they do not get encouragement from their teachers. With respect to security, it seems that the students do not know how to secure the OCG tools and may have some misconceptions about security. In conclusion, students need awareness and encouragement as well as trust in order to use the OCG tools.

Observations

It was observed from meeting the classes while the students were working that they are dependent and lazy – they do not want to try anything new. They prefer to use traditional methods for learning. Furthermore, the teachers do not make it compulsory (or even encourage) to use the new learning technologies such as OCG tools.

Table 4.11: Suggestions to solve these problems in the le arning

Code Responses

S1 I, as a student, suggest that the IT centre must prepare and solve all the security problems which lead us to trust them and then we can use it in the learning.

S2 I, as a student, suggest increasing the awareness of the usage and of OCG tools and it is the responsibility of the teachers to make students aware of the security issues.

S3 I, as a student, recommend using some of these tools for learning especially Twitter and Facebook

S4 I, as a student, recommend increasing the awareness of secure OCG tools amongst the teachers.

4.4 Conclusion

The teachers‘ and students‘ interview results indicate that the students and teachers lack knowledge of the security in some of the familiar OCG tools such as Facebook, Emails, Skype, and Twitter. They both commented that these tools waste teachers‘ and students‘ time as they are not familiar with them. In addition to that, they agreed that use of some of the common OCG tools such as Facebook and Twitter is worthwhile but they do not feel they have sufficient trust to use them. They feel anxiety when using webmail as they think it is exposed to hackers. It seems that the students do not trust such tools, and they do not feel comfortable when using them and always feel worried.

Overall, the initial research results signpost that lack of awareness and motivation and then trust are the key problems in OCG tools usage. The author proposes that these problems may be partially improved by a suitable environment in which aware teachers encourage students.

Based on the findings from the literature review, student questionnaire results and interviews with IT teachers and students, possible subject areas for using OCG tools in the learning:

 Increase motivation for the teachers and students;  Raise awareness of secure OCG tools;

 Make the students and teachers aware of how to secure the OCG tools fundamentally.

Limitation

During the initial study including the survey and interviews, there has been some of limitations which constrained the activities and led to these results:

1- the participants are not motivated to response to the questionnaires and were not

2- the participants did not have knowledge about some of OCG tools such as Skype

3- Some of the respondents did not read well the question of the questionnaire

4.5 Chapter Summary

The author proposes that the existing problems identified could be addressed with increase in awareness of the OCG tools, and that motivation for using the tools could be improved with the increase of trust. This is supported by the initial feedback from the students and teachers. These suggestions claimed by the author, in this context, are essential for teaching/learning to be effective and modern, in order to benefit the students.

The next Chapter will

 Critically find the students‘ perception of chosen OCG tools Such as Skype, Wiki, Facebook, and Gmail (SWFG);

 Gain a sense of how participants navigate through SWFG;

 Evaluate the security, safety, privacy and trust of SWFG tools and discover if there is a common behaviour for students during the experiment.

Chapter Five: Students’ perception of secure SWFG tools

5.1 Introduction

In the previous Chapters, current problems in OCG tools usage were identified. Increasing security, safety, privacy, and trust which I refer to as (SSPT) can be a possible solution for the lack of OCG tools usage. To investigate this, the researcher chose to investigate the students‘ perception of particular chosen OCG tools such as Skype, Wiki, Facebook, Gmail (SWFG) during the learning process at UOB by conducting a quasi-experiment. In this experiment SWFG was evaluated to identify if they are secure, safe, private and trusted by the students. Following this experiment, some of these tools could then be further examined through evaluations and intervention activities in the next stages of this study. Before proceeding to the next section which explains the quasi-experiment, the meanings of the terms secure, private, safe and trusted SWFG tools should be clarified.

As discussed in Chapter 1, the following terms has been adapted for the purpose of this concept.

 Secure SWFG tools are the tools that have the tools‘ security settings enabled.

 Private SWFG tools have the ability for students to isolate information about themselves and thereby reveal themselves selectively.

 Safe SWFG tools are protected from harm such as viruses, spyware, etc.